As represented by a smart phone (multifunctional mobile phone), a portable apparatus in recent years provides various functions; for example, some portable apparatuses are known to provide navigation functions equivalent to an in-vehicle navigation apparatus. It is noted that the size of a display screen of such a portable apparatus is typically smaller than that of an in-vehicle display apparatus mounted in a vehicle; thus, the display screen of the portable apparatus has been difficult to see or manipulate in the vehicle, as compared with that of the in-vehicle apparatus.
Such a background leads to a proposal of a technology which configures an in-vehicle apparatus and a portable apparatus to communicate with each other for cooperation to thereby make available functions of the portable apparatus in the in-vehicle apparatus. This technology permits the in-vehicle display apparatus to display an image displayed in the display portion of the portable apparatus while reflecting a manipulation performed in the in-vehicle apparatus to the portable apparatus. That is, the portable apparatus is remotely manipulated by the in-vehicle apparatus; thereby, the functions of the portable apparatus is used in the in-vehicle apparatus.
In particular, some portable apparatuses using a short range wireless communication such as Bluetooth (registered trademark) are in widespread use in recent years. The portable apparatus and the in-vehicle apparatus thus interface with each other even without being intentionally connected with each other using a cable.
For example, the in-vehicle apparatus in Patent Literature 1 establishes a wireless communication with a portable apparatus that is located at a distance permitting a short range wireless communication and thereby detected; then acquires an image and a sound provided by an application under execution in the portable apparatus; and then displays the acquired image in a touch-sensitive display apparatus mounted in the vehicle while outputting the sound from a speaker. Upon receiving a touch manipulation to the displayed image, the in-vehicle apparatus transmits the received manipulation to the portable apparatus and causes the portable apparatus to execute the process corresponding to the manipulation.
It is noted that remotely manipulating a portable apparatus from an in-vehicle apparatus via a wireless communication results in necessitating the selection of a portable apparatus serving as a target of remote manipulation among a plurality of portable apparatuses. In this regard, the in-vehicle apparatus described in Patent Literature 1 operates as follows. That is, when a plurality of portable apparatuses are detected which exist in a distance enabling a short range wireless communication, a list inquiring about with which portable apparatus the in-vehicle apparatus is caused to interface is displayed in the display apparatus of the in-vehicle apparatus, thereby requiring a user to select.